Others hit back: "While the @UKinUSA 1812 tweet was no big deal, I'm allowing myself another 'you'd all be speaking German' joke sometime in the near future."

The UK embassy was hoping to celebrate the "special relationship and work together shoulder to shoulder across the globe". But the outcry forced a grovelling backtrack from the British. "Apologies for earlier tweet. We meant to mark an event in history and celebrate our strong friendship today," it said.